My Home, Your Home Inc., a Milwaukee nonprofit social servie agency that serves nearly 900 children and adults annually, has been awarded national accreditation.

The announcement was made recently by the Council on Accreditation (COA), based in New York City.

The accreditation applies to all programs offered by My Home, Your Home Inc.

Chief Executive Officer Constance Palmer-Jones said: "Accreditation was a major goal of our late founder, Irma Walker. As far back as 2003, Mrs. Walker began to get our organization ready through strategic planning."

"Our entire staff worked hard on accreditation, updating nearly 100 policies and procedures to ensure that we always deliver the highest quality services." said Palmer-Jones. "Now that we are accredited, we are determined to stay on top through our Perfomance and Quality Improvement program."

COA says it awards accreditation to community-based behavioral health care and human service organizations if their services meet national standards for being "accessible, appropriate, culturally responsive, evidence based, and outcomes-oriented."

In addition, COA says, accreditation affirms that an organization's "services are provided by a skilled and supported workforce and that all individuals are treated with dignity and respect."

The programs are:  Lissy's Place, a haven for homeless women; Treatment Foster Care, which finds homes for severely abused and neglected children; Wraparound Care, for children whith severe emotional and mental health needs; AMAD's Place, for teenage boys who have been displaced from homes because of parental maltreatment or emotional/behavioral problems; and Access to Recovery, for adults recovering from alcohol and drug abuse.

Only eight other Milwaukee-based social service agencies are COA-accredited.

My Home, Your Home Inc. is funded by contracts, grants and donations, including the Community Shares workplace-giving program.